The year 2016 is finally coming to a close and what better way to celebrate than to talk about, you guessed it, books! I am collaborating with Lyka Cali over at Wander Reads to bring you guys five posts talking about different topics we feel really strongly about. What better way to welcome the new year than for blogs who mainly post about books to talk about more bookish things? Kidding aside, we hope you guys enjoy this and please let us know whether you want us to do more of these "book marathons" on our blogs in the comments
Let's get started!
We figured we should start this "marathon" with stuff about books that we really hate and end with the stuff we really love. For this first episode we are doing, THE WORST YA BOOK COVERS EVER!
I believe in the saying "Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover"....most of the time....at least I try really hard to. But every one in a while there will come a novel or a book series that truly has some atrocious covers. It would come to a point where I couldn't move on from how horrible the cover is and I end up not buying the book. Apart from being an avid reader, I am also a book collector. I am obsessed with keeping books in perfect states and having them look attractive on my shelves. So it annoys me when there are book covers that disrupt the aesthetic of my bookshelves because they are just so bad. If the cover is bad, the book needs to be really good for me to buy it. But even if that's the case, that doesn't stop me from criticizing it. Over the years, covers of Young Adult books have gotten so much better. I guess publishing companies are investing more on them since they are so popular now compared to the early 2000's. MY GOD THE EARLY 2000's YA COVERS WERE REALLY SHITTY. I am thankful there has been a breakthrough.....even though there are still some out there who aren't getting the memo.
So without further ado, here is my "Worst YA Book Covers Ever" (in no particular order) list!
The colors in general are not satisfying colors to look at. They are all dull and dreary. There isn't much contrast to the colors. This is why the shades they used for the covers come across as drab because the contrast that should have been in there to make the colors pop out is absent. They are all murky which is a shame because there were some great potential in these covers.
The whole Shadowhunter chronicles is another set of books I have been eyeing for years now but eventually gave up on. The covers were part of the reasons why. I really just did not like the original covers. I remember cringing at the sight of the City of Bones copy my classmate was reading when I was in sixth grade.
Obviously my relationship with the Shadowhunter books did not stay the same. I eventually picked up The Infernal Devices with the encouragement of my close friends and I absolutely loved it. I've got to be honest though and say that the new covers pushed me some more to read the series too. The edits on the models were better and they weren't in awkward poses anymore. They were in sensible and bad ass poses.
The colors of the book covers also improved. There are still some spotty places but they have better contrast with the colors than they did with the old covers. I love these new covers. These are the type I won't be ashamed to read in public. If they were capable of making good covers, why did those old covers existed in the first place? I thought for a long time about possible reasons why this is so and there is still nothing coming to mind. Nonetheless, I am extremely delighted they gave The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devies a make-over. Cassandra Clare's books deserved an upgrade that isn't cringe-worthy.
No matter how much I try to abide to the "Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover" saying, it's still a challenge to overlook a cover especially when its just so outrageously bad. They give you the first impressions you have of books and if you mess up that step, you are going to have a really hard time convincing a reader to buy the book, even to read the premise on the back! Good covers are essential and there is just no way around it. I hope that over the next few years, the amount of bad covers will be less and less. No matter the story, it needs to have a good cover for it to automatically have a good start. Every book deserves a clean slate. Let's help leave each and every book's success solely on the story and nothing more.
(Note # 1: This list is based on what I feel are some of the worst young adult book covers out there. You are welcome to agree or disagree with me. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.)
(Note # 2: Episode 2 of the Fuck 2016 marathon will be up by December 24)
(Note # 3: Now that you have read my post, you can now read Lyka Cali's list!)
Let's get started!
We figured we should start this "marathon" with stuff about books that we really hate and end with the stuff we really love. For this first episode we are doing, THE WORST YA BOOK COVERS EVER!
I believe in the saying "Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover"....most of the time....at least I try really hard to. But every one in a while there will come a novel or a book series that truly has some atrocious covers. It would come to a point where I couldn't move on from how horrible the cover is and I end up not buying the book. Apart from being an avid reader, I am also a book collector. I am obsessed with keeping books in perfect states and having them look attractive on my shelves. So it annoys me when there are book covers that disrupt the aesthetic of my bookshelves because they are just so bad. If the cover is bad, the book needs to be really good for me to buy it. But even if that's the case, that doesn't stop me from criticizing it. Over the years, covers of Young Adult books have gotten so much better. I guess publishing companies are investing more on them since they are so popular now compared to the early 2000's. MY GOD THE EARLY 2000's YA COVERS WERE REALLY SHITTY. I am thankful there has been a breakthrough.....even though there are still some out there who aren't getting the memo.
So without further ado, here is my "Worst YA Book Covers Ever" (in no particular order) list!
1. Anna and The French Kiss & Lola and The Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
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| First covers of Stephanie Perkins' Anna and The French Kiss & Lola and The Boy Next Door (Photo from www.perpetualpageturner.com) |
These covers were just really bad. It turned me away from reading these books when I first heard about them. The actual books books are good, enjoyable, quirky, and charming but you wouldn't know that with the first covers. The covers definitely do not describe the great story inside. There are just so many things done wrong in these covers. The editing is severely poor. It is lackluster and unbelievable. The font is just really awful. The cursive adds to the cheesiness of the whole thing.
I personally prefer book covers to not include faces of people unless done right or if it it makes sense. These first covers are the epitome of everything I hate about human faces being on book covers. The girl and the boy in both covers are just really stiff and most of all awkward. I honestly don't know how they thought these were acceptable covers to give Perkins' books. I am extremely glad and relieved when they got new covers. That's when I finally read them and loved them. We see an amazing shot of the settings, the fonts were simple and I love how they included a symbolic shape/image in each cover depending on the story. They are now really pleasing to look at. I know a lot of people who started reading these books because of the cover change and these stories really deserve it. But even though these books got a nice cover make-over, it doesn't change how bad the original covers were.
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| New covers of Stephanie Perkins' Anna and The French Kiss & Lola and The Boy Next Door (Photo from: www.fortheloveofwords.n |
I personally prefer book covers to not include faces of people unless done right or if it it makes sense. These first covers are the epitome of everything I hate about human faces being on book covers. The girl and the boy in both covers are just really stiff and most of all awkward. I honestly don't know how they thought these were acceptable covers to give Perkins' books. I am extremely glad and relieved when they got new covers. That's when I finally read them and loved them. We see an amazing shot of the settings, the fonts were simple and I love how they included a symbolic shape/image in each cover depending on the story. They are now really pleasing to look at. I know a lot of people who started reading these books because of the cover change and these stories really deserve it. But even though these books got a nice cover make-over, it doesn't change how bad the original covers were.
2. Paper Towns by John Green
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| First covers of John Green's novel, Paper Towns (Photo from: www.wikipedia.org) |
I have one word to describe this cover: BORING
There's pretty much nothing going on in the first two covers of Paper Towns. There is a girl staring straight ahead and, depending on the version you choose, looks either happy or sad.....and that's it. I guess you can count that the background changes too?? The point is it does nothing to catch your attention. I think Paper Towns was an satisfactory and enjoyable book filled with fun and quirky characters but, again, you wouldn't know that with those two covers. It doesn't give me a good feel of the book unlike the cover of Paper Towns on your the left. That cover is a newer design and a much more pleasing image. It definitely catches your attention and sets a good first-impression. The first ones just lacked creativity and aesthetic. I understand that those two covers were meant to represent the two sides of Margo Roth Spiegelman, one of the main characters in Paper Towns, but could they have done a better job at it? Could they at least spent time and effort in it? Those covers look like it was done in a few minutes, twenty minutes tops. They look like they came out of a freshmen photoshop class, not from an official artist hired by a publishing company to design the cover of a book. It just radiates dullness and mediocrity.
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| One of the latest covers of John Green's Paper Towns (Photo from: theempirestrikesforward.blogspot.com) |
3. The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg
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| One of the first covers of The Catastrophic History of You and Me (Photo from: ya-sisterhood.blogspot.com) |
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| One of the first covers of The Catastrophic History of You and Me (Photo from: www.goodreads.com) |
I have no words at how bad the first covers of Jess Rothenberg's debut novel are. Really? A floating girl? Really? And to your right she's upside down... I guess they thought it would look and sell better if they had the girl upside down... yeah sure that will really work. This book was surprisingly good, it exceeded my expectations. The premise is cheesy as hell but when you start actually reading it you find yourself relating and investing more and more on it's main character, Brie.
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| Recent cover of The Catastrophic History of You and Me (Photo from: www.goodreads.com) |
Like Paper Towns, this does nothing to draw you in or give you a feel of the story. The only difference is Paper Towns is just boring and mediocre, this one is just full on shitty. It actually repels you when you see it in the bookstore. It's such a shame because I think this book needs more recognition because it really is a good and fun read. It deserves a much better cover and thankfully it did. The cover on your right is the latest cover of The Catastrophic History of You and Me, unlike the first two above, the colors are appealing, there are no awkward floating girls (I mean I know Brie is dead in the novel but for God's sake, JUST NO) and there is a necklace in front which is actually relevant to the story. The premise is hard enough to sell to your average book buyer because it's sounds completely cheesy! How did the publishing company get the idea that making it have these kinds of covers would work? Sometimes I really do wonder how they think up there. I just really want to know why they keep on making horrible decisions for their books.
Wow these are just horrendous.
Above is a collection of some of The Vampire Diaries series covers. I couldn't find a picture with every single book in it but I think these seven are enough to tell you how truly ghastly they are. I don't even know where to begin with these covers but I will try.
First of all, let us talk about the models. They all look like constipated and pasty dolls. I don't know if its because they think all vampires look like that so they should keep up the theme of pasty and constipated looking vampires in every fucking cover but either way it is just so unpleasant to look at. They look severely awkward and forced. Other than the models, what is up with the font of the words? Is it some kind of strange cursive that I suppose alludes to vampires? If that's their reason then that's just plain stupid. Why does everything have to suggest to vampires? Do you see Twilight having some weird shit about vampires on their covers? Absolutely not. Why do they think they need to state the obvious that the books are about vampires?? I think everyone can guess its about vampires based on the series name. And lastly, aside from the font and models there is nothing going on! There are no designs whatsoever for aesthetic purposes to intrigue the reader. It's the background color....and that's it. The Vampire Diaries covers are just really bad and there is no saving it. There are utterly no silver linings. Kudos to the artists who designed these covers. You guys really made something special!
This cover is not as bad as the others I have criticized above but it is still pretty bad.
The original cover of Throne of Glass was already unpleasant but I think since the new cover has been released and the fact that the succeeding books followed it's design, it just highlighted how substandard the original cover is. To be fair, it does give you a feel of the story with the model having a knife strapped to her shoulder and a silhouette of the glass castle on the background but it is overshadowed by the fact that the model just looks so awkward and edited. She takes up the entire page so in order for it to be at least decent, she should look menacing as Celaena Sardothien, the main character of the series, should be. But she just doesn't. She's like a mannequin, a doll. The author, Sarah J. Maas herself calls the original cover the "Barbie cover" and stated how much she loved the cover change. If the author herself doesn't like it, what more of her readers? If I am being honest with myself, I didn't like the new covers in the beginning. It felt too much like the visuals in the video game "Tekken" but overtime it grew on me and I actually began to appreciate how it captures Celaena in every book. Much better than the "Barbie cover" that's for sure. It is my plea to every publishing company to stop approving designs that have girls staring blankly as if they are not embodying a character. Please just stop with this trope.
4. Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead
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| First covers of the Vampire Academy series (Photo from: www.wikipedia.org) |
This one is a classic.
Almost everyone, if not all (but I am pretty sure its everyone), hates the Vampire Academy covers because of how bad they are. It is famous for being seriously bad. Vampire Academy is a young adult paranormal series but based on these covers that wouldn't be my first guess. If I didn't know anything about the series and just happened to pass by it in the bookstore, I would think they were an erotic romance series. I mean seriously these covers SCREAM cheesy romance stories. Spirit Bound, the fifth book of the series, is literally a boy and girl slightly kissing with a a weird wind effect and lighting.
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| One of the latest covers of the Vampire Academy series (Photo from: fansofvampireacademy.wordpress.com) |
I know Vampire Academy was published during the time when Young Adult books had really atrocious covers but seriously! How can you give generic, cheesy romance covers to a paranormal series? It seriously undermines it. A few years after the final book, Last Sacrifice, was published, there was announcement that the entire series was getting new covers. Of course, long time fans were excited for a make-over but what they got were the covers you see on your left. It is basically the same covers with added color and a big "VA" to cover the faces....wow that made such a big difference guys! Those are the covers that Vampire Academy truly deserves. Kidding aside, I feel really bad for the long time fans who really hoped for good covers. What they got was basically the same thing.
I know it's late but I'm really interested in this series and I want to read it. Actually, I was already interested in this series years ago but as soon as I saw the covers I bolted the other direction. But now I realized there was really nothing I could do about the covers. They will forever be horrible, time won't ever change that so I decided to order the first book from Book Depository. I ordered the latest cover of Vampire Academy, the one with the big "VA" on the cover because, after all, I had a choice to choose between an awful cover and a slightly less awful cover wherein a big "VA" covers the face of the girl.
5. The Vampire Diaries Series by L.J. Smith
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| Some covers of The Vampire Diaries Series (Photo from: www.pinterest.com) |
Above is a collection of some of The Vampire Diaries series covers. I couldn't find a picture with every single book in it but I think these seven are enough to tell you how truly ghastly they are. I don't even know where to begin with these covers but I will try.
First of all, let us talk about the models. They all look like constipated and pasty dolls. I don't know if its because they think all vampires look like that so they should keep up the theme of pasty and constipated looking vampires in every fucking cover but either way it is just so unpleasant to look at. They look severely awkward and forced. Other than the models, what is up with the font of the words? Is it some kind of strange cursive that I suppose alludes to vampires? If that's their reason then that's just plain stupid. Why does everything have to suggest to vampires? Do you see Twilight having some weird shit about vampires on their covers? Absolutely not. Why do they think they need to state the obvious that the books are about vampires?? I think everyone can guess its about vampires based on the series name. And lastly, aside from the font and models there is nothing going on! There are no designs whatsoever for aesthetic purposes to intrigue the reader. It's the background color....and that's it. The Vampire Diaries covers are just really bad and there is no saving it. There are utterly no silver linings. Kudos to the artists who designed these covers. You guys really made something special!
6. The Vampire Diaries: Stefan's Diaries
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| (Photo from: www.pinterest.com) |
The Vampire Diaries just doesn't get a break with covers, does it?
Why I think the Stefan's Diaries book covers are bad is similar to why I thought the first covers of Paper Towns were so bad. They are boring and does not grab your attention. They are just faces of the actors working on the show, some weird lighting, and nothing. They also did the whole partial-face-shot thing that I think we have established should be done well to look good. This just looks like posters of the TV show being made into a book cover to save money.....and now that I do think about it I think that's exactly what they did! I think I have seen those posters before on billboards and ads in the internet. That is laziness right there. They can't even hire an artist to make a book cover! They just reused posters. Unbelievable.
Another problem I have with these covers is the fact they used Elena and Katherine's faces for two of the covers when both of them weren't even in those books or in any other books! I have read the entire series and I can guarantee you they don't appear. What's the point of including them then? To make people buy the book just because Nina Dobrev is on the cover? At this point whenever a Vampire Diaries book comes out, whether written by the author herself or a ghost writer, I will automatically assume that the cover is horrendous. After all, when have they ever broken the streak of dreadful covers?
7. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
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| First cover of Throne of Glass (Photo from: www.goodreads.com) |
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| Latest cover of Throne of Glass (Photo from: www.goodreads.com) |
8. The Mortal Instruments Series and The Infernal Devices Trilogy by Cassandra Clare
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| First covers of The Mortal Instrument Series (Photo from www.bibliomantics.com) |
This is bad for the same reason the original Throne of Glass cover is now considered unsatisfactory in book world...because the new covers came out.
Disregarding the new covers of both The Mortal Instruments series and The Infernal Devices series, the original covers were at most decent and at worst shoddy. The best one is Clockwork Princess which was the most pleasing to look at. The worst are City of Bones and Clockwork Prince. What makes them mostly shoddy are the models and the colors. The models are awkward and badly edited. They stand in weird angles that doesn't seem right and just end up coming across as awkward. The way they shine is just strange and poorly done.
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| First covers of The Infernal Devices Series (Photo from: www.twirlingpages.com) |
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| Latest covers of The Mortal Instrument Series (Photo from: www.bibliomantics.com) |
Obviously my relationship with the Shadowhunter books did not stay the same. I eventually picked up The Infernal Devices with the encouragement of my close friends and I absolutely loved it. I've got to be honest though and say that the new covers pushed me some more to read the series too. The edits on the models were better and they weren't in awkward poses anymore. They were in sensible and bad ass poses.
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| Latest covers of The Infernal Devices Series (www.twirlingpages.com) |
No matter how much I try to abide to the "Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover" saying, it's still a challenge to overlook a cover especially when its just so outrageously bad. They give you the first impressions you have of books and if you mess up that step, you are going to have a really hard time convincing a reader to buy the book, even to read the premise on the back! Good covers are essential and there is just no way around it. I hope that over the next few years, the amount of bad covers will be less and less. No matter the story, it needs to have a good cover for it to automatically have a good start. Every book deserves a clean slate. Let's help leave each and every book's success solely on the story and nothing more.
(Note # 1: This list is based on what I feel are some of the worst young adult book covers out there. You are welcome to agree or disagree with me. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.)
(Note # 2: Episode 2 of the Fuck 2016 marathon will be up by December 24)
(Note # 3: Now that you have read my post, you can now read Lyka Cali's list!)
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